Canadian Natural resource Minister Joe Oliver told the Congress that Canada expects 650 Billion US dollars worth of investment in the energy industry. We are at the Centre of the international fracking boom and most Canadians dont know it. It is literally like being in the eye of the storm.

Some of my friends on Facebook who unfortunately think Sun News is the truth (It isn't, it's more editiorial opinions from the right wing point of view) have been posting stuff from them. Anything you can pick out from these?

New Brunswick Justice George Rideout declined today to extend an injunction against members of the Elsipogtog First Nation who have been protesting exploratory activities for fracking on their territory.

A video posted on facebook following today’s hearing shows several Mi’kmaq people, having just exited the courtroom, rejoicing over the judge’s decision. “There is no more injuction on the people who have been named or the Jane and John Does of New Brunswick,” one woman tells the camera.

A short-term injunction issued by the court on Oct. 3 to a subsidiary of Texas company SWN Resources resulted in last week’s heavy-handed RCMP raid of a peaceful Elsipogtog protest camp – provoking outrage and supportive rallies across the country last week.

In the minutes leading up to the ruling, shale gas opponents, many from Elsipogtog First Nation, were drumming and singing in the courtroom and hallway. The court building was also crowded with supporters of protesters arrested on Thursday during a confrontation between RCMP and shale gas opponents in Rexton, N.B.

Justice Rideout declined to give a reason for today’s decision but will be issuing a written statement.

Phillip, the president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, told the crowd of a thousand, ”We are heading for a watershed moment in this country” – suggesting that Harper’s “petro-power” agenda to “sell out the resources of all Canadians” is coming to a head with First Nations and Canadian citizens.

What we witnessed yesterday – the brutality of the RCMP, the heavy-handed, para-miniltary response to a peaceful protest was a message…sent to British Columbia. It was a message sent to all of us here that when the Harper government vetoes any notion on the Joint Review Panel – to approve the pipeline projects, the natural gas developments, liquified natural gas exports to Asia and other countries – the Harper government is telling us this is what we may expect, that type of brutal response from the RCMP.

New Brunswick Justice George Rideout declined today to extend an injunction against members of the Elsipogtog First Nation who have been protesting exploratory activities for fracking on their territory.

Justice Rideout declined to give a reason for today’s decision but will be issuing a written statement.

can't wait to read it. and YES!!! it's not illegal to protest!!!!!!!!!

Apparently the judge did say in court that there did not seem to be a reason for extending the injunction becuase SWN had both taken its equipment away and was not currently operating.

Sounds so simple an obvious.

So here is where we stand in the power game.

Even the government cannot tell SWN not to operate for some length of time. They can only ask. That said, the Premeir has talked about at least a week's breather. Elsipogtog was talking about a month.

At a minimum, SWN has to stay away for a while. For all intents and purposes, they might as well still be blockaded.

When and if they choose to operate again, it is back to square one for them. The injunction against specific activists being in the area is gone. And if there is another blockade, it will take them a while to get a new injunction... still burning money with everyone and everything on idle, more money on legal costs...

The community puts a lot of people into looking for the equipment. It must be well hidden, and definitely not working. The crews may even have gone home indefinitely.

The Mi’kmaq-led opposition to shale gas exploration in New Brunswick continued to regroup Monday, moving into a new phase which could also bring new leadership to the ongoing struggle.

The movement was buoyed Monday afternoon after a Court of Queen’s Bench judge ruled against a Houston-based energy company that was seeking an indefinite injunction against an encampment along Route 134 in Rexton, NB.

The judge said the injunction was no longer needed because trucks belonging to SWN Resources Canada had been freed following an RCMP raid on the encampment Thursday.

The encampment had been blocking the company’s trucks in a compound. The RCMP acted last Thursday, one day before an interim injunction was set to expire, sweeping onto the site with dogs and camouflaged tactical units, arresting 40 people and seizing three rifles, ammunition and crude explosive devices....

"Only when community resistance speaks truth to power, as has been witnessed in Elsipogtog for the last several days, can the voice of democracy be heard - and when it is heard, it speaks with more clarity and simple truth than capital can handle."

New Brunswick fracking protests are the frontline of a democratic fight

The image of burning police cars played endlessly on the evening news. Television and talk radio blared out reports of "clashes" between police and indigenous protestors. Last Thursday in New Brunswick near the Elsipogtog First Nation, we were told the government had enforced an injunction against a blockade of a US shale gas company. There was nothing about the roots of a conflict years in the making. An appeal to the stereotype of indigenous violence was enough: once again, the natives were breaking the law; the police had to be sent in. Catching the headlines, Canadian could shake their heads and turn away their gaze.

But smoke and flames from police cars can only hide the truth for so long. The exact chronology is not yet settled, but this much is clear: on Thursday morning someone in government sanctioned the Canadian police to invade a peaceful protest site like an army. In a dawn raid, snipers crawled through the forest, putting children and elders in their cross-hairs. Police carried assault rifles and snarling dogs, and sprayed tear gas and shot rubber-type bullets. The result was predictable: shocked and enraged people, a day ending in chaos....

This video is posted to emphasize the solidarity and unity between First Peoples, Acadian and Anglophone communities within New Brunswick, who have united in their opposition to shale gas exploration and stand for a sustainable future for future generations. Here, you will see the round dance around the SWN "thumper" compound immediately after Elsipogtog Chief Aaron Sock's press conference, held at the blockade site on Treaty Day, October 1. Each community is represented at the encampment. Members of each community also visit us daily and provide good cheer, supplies and other support. Furthermore, *each* community was represented at the first meeting with the Premiere and each will continue to be represented at future discussions. Video filmed by Christian Peacemaker Teams- the Aboriginal Justice Team.

more of a question is who owns those companies? i know some. it should be the shareholders from the parent companies who should divest!!!!! not going to happen though peeps too racist and too into their portfolios.

On October 17, 2013, Amanda Marie Polchies, a member of the Elsipogtog First Nation, was among hundreds protesting a fracking project outside Rexton, New Brunswick. Her image has since become a symbol of that movement's efforts.

First Nations warn Harper's zeal for resources makes the Elsipogtog protest part of a wider struggle

First Nations’ frustrations with government are nearing a boiling point where confrontations are increasingly likely to turn violent, B.C. aboriginal leaders warn.

In a telephone interview, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip told the Georgia Straight that recent clashes between RCMP officers and First Nations members in New Brunswick are part of a struggle shared by aboriginal people across Canada.

“I think Prime Minister Harper has done an incredible job provoking a conflict between the economy and the environment,” the president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs said. “It’s shaping up to be a war between oil and water. And it applies to the eastern part of this country as well as British Columbia.”.....

Khelsilem Rivers is a community organizer with the Skwxwú7mesh Nation who has worked with the Idle No More movement. Like Phillip and Hill, he also voiced concerns about the growing possibility of violence between First Nations groups and Canadian law-enforcement agencies.

Rivers lamented that for years, Canada's aboriginal people have known that the federal government regards their protest movements as illegitimate. He recounted how in 2007 the public learned that the military was using a counter-insurgency manual that listed Native groups alongside international terrorist organizations. More recently, Rivers continued, the RCMP used the Elsipogtog incident to denounce First Nations’ protests as a threat to public safety.

“It’s a tactic that’s meant to separate supporters from each other and try to create dissent, as well as a level of doubt within the Canadian public,” he said.

A few things are clear from the events of the past week. The first is that we are not alone. The Mi’kmaq who are standing against fracking for natural gas in Elsipogtog do so not just with the courage of their own convictions but also with support from places diverse in geography, culture and ethnicity.

Social media have made it much easier to reach across time and space. We are connecting with our Native relations from the Mohawks to the Lakota, but also the Paiute, Ojibwe, Kumeyaay and hundreds of Native people familiar and unfamiliar to us all. We may not form an ever-ready unified military force, but that is not where our strength will ever be—nor should it.

Our strengths are in each of the territories or regions that we live. For some, it is seizing the moment to take our own stand on a parallel issue that strengthens the fight for each. For others, it is simply using whatever field of play we find ourselves in to raise awareness, make a statement and build support.

As I wove the information on the raid at Elsipogtog into my previously arranged interviews in Albany, N.Y. on public radio and cable news, I was surprised at the interest that was piqued.

And as I listened to public radio on my drive back across the state from Albany to Cattaraugus, I was moved by an interview with a local non-Native elected official in New Brunswick who said,

“God bless the First Nations.” This gentleman went on to describe how municipal leaders had voted almost unanimously for a moratorium of shale gas exploration in New Brunswick because of their concerns with hydrofracking....

anyhow distractions aside....i came to see if there were posts on the ownership plaques going up yesterday.

Quote:

Mi'kmaq Band Council is urging its members to reclaim all Crown land in the midst of the shale gas dispute in New Brunswick.

A "reclamation day" is scheduled for Saturday, Elsipogtog First Nation Warrior Chief John Levi told CBC News on Wednesday.

"Since the premier is not taking care of the land properly, we will take care of it ourselves," he said.

"Right now the government is jeopardizing our water," he said, referring to plans to develop the shale gas industry in the province and ongoing exploration by SWN Resources Canada. "What's next? That’s the most sacred thing, you know. Water is life. Without water, there is no life."

Mi'kmaq will be staking their claims to become stewards of public land in their territory by putting up plaques under the authority of the chief and grand council, said Levi.

"Are they [the provincial government] going to recognize it, or are they going to fight it? It's up to them," he said.

couldn't find any reports for after the fact in a search but i know they put 'em up!

"Members of the Elsipogtog First Nation will begin reclaining parcels of land in Kent County on Saturday by placing plagues on Crown land but an aboriginal law expert says it will be a symbolic exercise with no legal consequences.

Kenneth Francis says plagues will be placed on 50 seperate 100-acre lots which will be staked off..."

oh nothin to see here.....same old story same old song and dance my friend.

loved loved loved this

The Indigenous Council said future life on Earth is threatened.“The Fukushima nuclear crisis alone is a threat to the future of humanity. Yet, our concern goes far beyond this single threat. Our concern is with the cumulative and compounding devastation that is being wrought by the actions of human beings around the world. It is the combination of resource extraction, genetically modified organisms, moral failures, pollution, introduction of invasive species and much much more that are threatening the future of life on Earth.”

what a goof he is...i just can't wrap my mind around his uglier than shit words. maybe he should bone up on some history and then he might realize all of the Atlantic provinces are really not the property of the colonizers. there's no land treaty with the Mi'kmaq

unless this guy is shut down by the NDP federally and called out Ms May just might have my vote next election!

what a goof he is...i just can't wrap my mind around his uglier than shit words. maybe he should bone up on some history and then he might realize all of the Atlantic provinces are really not the property of the colonizers. there's no land treaty with the Mi'kmaq

unless this guy is shut down by the NDP federally and called out Ms May just might have my vote next election!

Here's the original NB NDP news release.
Disappointed to hear this "rule of law" crap from the NDP

FREDERICTON ¬ The New Brunswick New Democratic Party is calling on Premier Alward to immediately order the end to all road blockades before starting meaningful consultations with First Nations communities on the development of the shale gas industry.NB NDP Leader Dominic Cardy said, "We echo the call of the Assembly of First Nations Chiefs to avoid violence on both sides. At a time when our province desperately needs investments and jobs companies will be watching to see if the risk of doing business in New Brunswick is too great. We need the Premier to take a stand, to defend the rule of law in our province, make sure our children can go to school and our goods get to market without any interference."Cardy stressed that the peaceful end to the blockades is only the first step in a lasting resolution to this conflict. "Once the rule of law is enforced on our province's roads the same respect for the law must be applied to our legal responsibility to consult with First Nations," Cardy said. "The government has a broader political responsibility to consult with the people of our province and I hope recent events make the government realize that this issue needs further discussion, and a decision to be made in an election."-30-For media please contact Mike Girard at mgirard@nbndp.ca or (506)999-6431

what a goof he is...i just can't wrap my mind around his uglier than shit words. maybe he should bone up on some history and then he might realize all of the Atlantic provinces are really not the property of the colonizers. there's no land treaty with the Mi'kmaq

Yes, enough of this ndp 'rule of law' blather, especially given its grotesque perversion to commit high crimes of usurpation, fraud, constitutional treason, ecocide and genocide. NDP = no difference party. And just in case Cardy or other naifs should wish to 'bone up on some history', or law, here's a start:

Identification of the Conflicted Relationship Between the Indigenous Nations and the Legal Profession in North America: Bruce Clark

"...Since my traditional government never agreed by any treaty to be governed by your government, why does your legal system apply your government's laws to me on my indigenous nation's unceded national territory?"

"The question I want to explore here, albeit very briefly, is this: how might we begin to scale-up these often localized, resurgent-land-based direct actions to produce a transformation in the colonial economy more generally?

Said slightly differently, how might we move beyond a resurgent Indigeous politics that seeks to inhibit the destructive effects of capital - to one that strives to create indigenous alterations to it?"

SWN Resources Canada is planning to resume its controversial shale gas seismic exploration work on Wednesday, according to Elsipogtog War Chief John Levi

Levi said SWN’s lawyer Michael Connors, who is a partner with East Coast law firm McInnes Cooper, met with several dozen people from Elsipogtog First Nation and the surrounding communities late Sunday afternoon.

Levi said Connors told the people that SWN would withdraw a lawsuit against several community members if the Houston-based firm was allowed to finish its exploration work unimpeded.

“We said no, we are going to be there,” said Levi, in an interview with APTN National News. “What we told him was we are going to be there Wednesday.”

The meeting was held at a longhouse erected at an anti-fracking encampment used over the past summer. The area sits off Hwy 116 near Elsipogtog First Nation.

Connors told the people in the longhouse that SWN would be working for 14 days and warned them not to block the company’s movements or they would face violence....

First: They Value Differences and Rather than Suggest they be ErasedGenuine allies know that when people claim their differences within the social hierarchy of “white male heterosexual able-bodied” power, such as an Indigenous person or a person of colour, within the context of challenging the oppressive power structure, that this should not be perceived and argued as being divisive and thus disruptive to the larger goal and needed solidarity. Genuine allies know we are only humans within relationships of good social mirroring and affirmation of who we are and how we feel. This includes recognizing our differences with the context of a common goal rather than erasing them.....

Second: They Respect the Exhausting Energy of Structural OppressionI have found that some people who live closer to the top of the social hierarchy and who thus embody and live with more privilege, are unable to critically think about and thus really appreciate the incredible amount of intra-psychic energy required for a less privileged person to navigate the structural and institutional oppression inherent in our society.

For example, an Indigenous person or person of colour is forced to dedicate a large quantity of their consciousness navigating structures and institutions built primarily by white people with white people in mind. This is similar to women’s situation, in particular Indigenous women and women of colour – again they are forced to dedicate an additional large quantity of their consciousness to navigating the oppressive structures and institutions built primarily by white men for white men. Further, persons with disabilities are forced to dedicate yet even more intra-psychic energy to the process of navigating structures and institutions built primarily by able-bodied white men for able-bodied white men. Of course the same can be said for all people who exist outside the heterosexual normative as well as transgendered people....